Florida Fire Ants - Extinguish Plus

[lanaschix]

We live in Central Florida - fire ants are plentiful and dangerous. We have children and there is nothing like watching your poor kid frantically swat off a swarm of fire ants.

We have chickens in a tractor. We HAVE to apply broadcast fire ant bait. Nothing else is going to do it - no grits, cornstarch, baking soda, DE or anything else. WE are going to apply Extinguish Plus.

Does anyone actually use this or a similar product? Do your chickens go on it? It says not to cut hay for 7 days after treatment. I plan to keep them away from treated areas for at least 7 days. Do you think it will be safe? Will the eggs be ok? (they are not laying yet - probably wont be for 1-2 more months)

THANKS!

 

[Jesusfreak101]

I am not sure what kind of poison that is i had luck with bengal killing them and ortho. But only thing is they just move the jerks we have two kinds of fire ants here. I dont dare put poison near my hens as ours is a powder form and doesnt leave that i have noticed ever. However that being said i am right there with you on kids coming first if you have to maybe putting a small roll (cut fencing and zip tie to make a cylinder) fencing around the area to keep the hens out until you feel safe about the area again. I plan on doing this with ours as i know my hens will go after anything i put down on the ground.. I dont know how long it last if it safe after seven days to cut hay i would wait maybe 10 just to make sure. I know that theres something you can put in a jar of sugar water that will kill them i just cant remember the name it starts with a b and its no toxic as well(if i am remember correctly) so that might be safer with kids i have a two year old and a baby on the way so i am going to try that for now.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Found the name to the chemical stuff is called Borax its in the laundry detergant section.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I am unfamiliar with the brand "Extinguish Plus" but all effective fire ant baits use a carrier, like fat impregnated cornstarch, grits, cornmeal, or another similar food stuff as an attractant or bait to ensure that an effective insecticide makes it into the nest.

I know that anyone who has ever been bitten by fire ants won't believe this but adult fire ants are incapable of chewing or biting heir food. The adult ants depend on predigested liquid food that is regurgitated by the fire ant larva. Since a fire ant colony can be so deep underground and so wide spread the only thing that will kill them is a poison that kills off the ants' food at its source.

When the ants feed the poisoned food to their young, the larva dies along with the many queen ants in each colony. Without food and with no young young ants to produce more food the whole anthill dies. If you understood the life cycle of either fire ants or else farming practices then you would understand that cutting hay in a field infested with fire ants will disrupt their foraging activities. I bet that the instructions also advise against disturbing the ant hills when you apply the bait. It is because you are rendering the ant bait ineffectiveness by disturbing the mound.

Most fire ant baits have Permeation as the active ingredient. There is almost no likely hood that this insecticide will harm your chickens and even if you bathed your chickens in the stuff there is no withdrawal periods for the chickens' eggs or even for your chickens' "fingers" that is if you tried to gnaw on them. There is a cream for use on new born humans that has 2,000% more of this insecticide in it than "Extinguish Plus" likely has. It is intended for the control of scabies mites.

When you watch this rake winrowing hay then maybe you can understand how much it disturbs fire ants feeding activities to cut and bale hay.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

My wife came home the other day from work at the ER and related to me the tail of two boys who wanted to see who had more of the "RIGHT" stuff. These two young men stuck their arms into a large fire ant mound to see which one would blink first. They both blinked.

 

[lanaschix]

Crazy. Yeah this stuff has 2 components, one that kills instantly and another that inhibits future growth